I am Sophie, a Swedish woman by birth but English by adoption. I have a little mud hotel in the beautiful and ancient West African town of Djenne, Mali. WWW.HOTELDJENNEDJENNO.COM Because of unstable political
situation, tourism has ground to a halt. Hotel still open! But hotel staff mainly working in Bogolan studio now: www.malimali.org check out our fab online shop!

Friday, July 29, 2016

Mercy

One of the problems about the
administration of Amadou Toumani Touré which brought about his demise and
ushered in the coup was the impunity of the Malian elite- there were
certain ministers who had unquestionably lined their pocket with the state
coffers andfaced with the proof of
their crime all that ATT could find to say was, infamously: “but he is a ‘Père de Famille’! I cannot drag him before
the judiciary, it would be too shameful for him. We must show some mercy.” This passion for mercy runs through the Malian
psyche and yes , of course mercy is a virtue but, surely, impunity for
crimes committed isa sign of weakness and somehow
cowardice for not wanting to deal with a pressing problem?

Keita was the kindest person I
ever knew. When he died many people came to me and told me he loved even his
enemies and that was true: he did forgive everyone, even the ones who in my
opinion he should have brought to justice. He had a Sotralma in Bamako ( a
small bus for local transport) When he became ill nearly eight years ago
now he entrusted the care for this small business first of allinto the hands of a young
relative. This person took all the money and ran the Sotralma into the ground
without any maintenance. Finally Keita took it away from him and gave it to a “friend”
to manage. The same story repeated itself until the Sotralma was destroyed and meanwhile
Keita had hardly received any profit from it. And these two people decided to
behave in this way towards him at a time when he was in a wheelchair and
fighting for his life! But Keita forgave
them- meanwhile I have always refused to speak to these two and I studiously
ignore them whenever I run into them. In
my mind Keita was also too tainted by this Malian Mercy problem and we often
had arguments about it.

I am now faced with this same Mercy dilemma. Acé (Hasseye) has undoubtedly
stolenin the region of £2000 from me since
2011 by lining his pockets with certain of the payments for the
electricity bills. He has then kept the letters of warning from the EDM
(electricity board) from me and negotiated with them, using the fact that we
are going through a crisis and that the Ministry of Tourism has given
instructions to the services to be lenient with the hoteliers. According to the
EDM he has many times told them to be patient: La Patronne will pay. But the fact is that La Patronne had already
paid and he had pocketed the money. Of course it was my fault that I did not
insist on all the receipts: but last year I was away most of the time because
of illness. The day that I went back to Djenné last October while Keita was ill
at Eva’s I was also gravely ill and I only just had the time to give Acé the
money for the electricity bill before returning to Bamako: I wrote it in my diary:
“To Acé: money EDM “– and the amount. This
was never paid, it is one of the eight bills that are missing.

My stepfather in Sweden thinks I
ought to bring in the police. He also thinks that I should haul Acé before the
EDM again to have the director repeat the claim that he has been there
negotiating. I had decided myself not to bring in the police. Acé is quite ill and has been suffering from a
respiratory problem for the last couple of years. This circumstance, coupled
with the fact that he is so much part of the very fibre of my life here made me
feel that I must tread softly. I did ask him quietly to tell me the truth and
we should somehow be able to overcome this together. But he refused and said
that he absolutely had not taken the money. So what to do next? I wanted to
sack him today but my two advisors Dra, the manager of the Campement Hotel and
Cisse the Djenné tax inspector, both Keita’s closest friends, have now stepped
in and although they believe him to be guilty they want me to reconsider for
Keita’s sake.So I have done nothing
yet. But I do not believe I can just let it drop! It surely cannot be right? I do
need to listen to these two – Dra and Cissé- they are more or less my only friendswith any clout here. Is there another sort of justice here in Mali? Should Mercy prevail at any cost? What would Keita say? And what would
I do without Acé? It will be difficult here without him. He is an important
part of my life here and he was here from the very beginning. This picture was
taken by Keita in 2006 when the two of them went to Gao to by fridges and
Freezers for the hotel. They are travelling past ‘The Hand of Fatima’ the
mountain peak by Hombori. (The other pictures by Birgit Snitker)
It breaks my heart that Acé has done this!

Later: Cissé has been back again and his
advice is that I don’t sack Acé but that I cut his wages by 20%. I should also remove any responsibility of any
payments from him.Maybe this is what
should be done- it is certain that I have to try to hear Keita’s advice in this,
and I know that he would advocate Mercy...

9 Comments:

I agree with your friend. I was going to suggest the same, cutting the salary and taking away any handling of money. It is too tempting and these poor people are too weak. I have lived in poverty cultures or cultures with little education and this story repeats itself time and time again.

Another extraordinary aspect of Malian life reveals itself here - I did not know about the quality of mercy nor that story about Keita's bus. The question is, how to introduce a sense of morality? Presumably you have been paying Ace reasonable wages, because I know that you've never exploited your staff (of course not). If some desperate story came out about a relative who needed the money, of course you would be understanding. But your sense of betrayal must be very strong and you are right to be angry.

I do not envy you your predicament. I am sure that your friends are offering sound advice but if you cut his wages it implies his guilt and he is professing his innocence. I wish you well in deciding what to do but Ace is obviously an important part of your team.It is so very frustrating when you trust someone as you expect that trust to be honoured. This is not just a problem in 'poverty cultures'. How to introduce a sense of morality is a universal issue.Mary

thank you Tabor David and Mary for your comments. I have decided to go along with the cut in wages idea. I am certain that he is guilty and I will tell him so too. I will also tell him I am keeping him on for the sake of Keita's memory - this is how I believe he would have done it- and for the long service he has given the hotel.I can also not very easily go against the express wishes of my only two allies here: Dra and Cissé who wants me to keep him. That would put me in a position of isolation. Now what is the most difficult thing is to try and continue as normal once this is over- how can I behave normally with someone I think has betrayed me to this extent? Specially since I already suffer from a very short temper!

Well done. You have reached a decision. Explain this and then continue ever forward and try not to bear a resentment towards Ace. Model your attitude on the exemplary behaviour of Keita - think of his loyalty when faced with the bus sagas. I would find it very hard but am sure that you can, and will, rise to the challenge.Mary

Yes indeed Mary, that is the idea...but something of a trial. The thing is everything moves so fast here that very soon other problems will have taken over and it will probably have melted into the past.

It is certainly a dilemma. I think that, for many reasons, the mercy choice could be the best in this case. But, I also believe that, in order to rebuild that relationship in a solid way, he should confess his fault, ask for your forgiveness and accept the "punishment". That would be the perfect solution. But I understand that perfection is usually difficult to reach. The best luck, in any case, Sophie.